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OSCE to monitor German election after minor parties frozen out
Aug 9, 2009, 15:00 GMT
Berlin - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe intends to send election observers to Germany to monitor the September 27 general election, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Sunday.
The reason behind the OSCE decision, which would be the organization's first ever election-monitoring mission to Germany, is the refusal by the German parliament to allow three minor parties to take part in the election, the paper reported.
'Because the non-admission of several parties has now become an issue, our election observers will take a close look,' said OSCE spokesman Jens-Hagen Eschenbaecher.
On Thursday the German parliament's election committee refused to give the Free Union party, the Grey Party, and the PARTY group, official approval to take part in the election, because of application irregularities.
All three parties are extremely small, with the largest, the Free Union party of ex-Christian Democrat Gabriele Pauli, having only had enough support to field six candidates.
Eschenbaecher said that the OSCE, which has frequently sent election monitoring teams to countries in the former Soviet bloc, would now send twelve observers to Germany from mid-September until October, and would then publish a report.
Following the parliamentary committee's decision, critics charged that the authorities had not taken the rights of small parties seriously enough.
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